Run

Only one idea seemed to be even remotely sensible with a possibility of success: to run.

Emily darted to the right, not wanting to continue toward what was likely to be the Holy Order’s camp, and it seemed she might have caught her unseen captor off-guard as she didn’t hear him chasing her. She chanced a look behind and thought she might have seen a figure moving quickly in the trees but she wasn’t sure. Either way she wasn’t going to stop to check.

She was getting out of breath and it was quite difficult running in these boots. She ducked behind a thick tree, pressing herself against the trunk and wrapping the cape around her body. She listened.

She could hear somebody coming. Slowly, and trying to be quiet but definitely coming this way. It sounded like they were to her left, coming straight toward this tree. There was no point running again, even if he didn’t know she was hiding here she would expose her position, and she wasn’t sure how much further she could run anyway.

Slipping her left arm out of her cape Emily waited for her assailant to come closer. She held her breath. He was right here, right next to the tree, still moving. She heard a footstep immediately next to her and lifted her elbow, swinging it out quickly in an arc at head height. It connected with something hard.

‘Ow, fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’ She looked around the tree to see a man staggering backwards holding his nose. There were two others just behind him, both looking almost as shocked as the one she had just elbowed in the face.

‘Whoa, what are you doing?’ asked one of the men, ‘You’re not supposed to actually hit us!’ He dashed to his friend, who was now on his knees.

‘I’m sorry!’ Emily cried, ‘I thought you were coming to get me!’

‘We were,’ the third man spoke up. ‘But only to capture you and put you in prison. We weren’t going to hurt you or anything. Look, the rules are that you can only fight with proper LARP weapons. You can’t just go around punching people.’

Emily knelt next to the man she had hit. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked him.

‘Do I fucking look okay?’ he was blinking repeatedly and his eyes were watering, but his nose wasn’t bleeding.

‘Well… actually yes.’ She replied.

‘Fuck you.’

‘I think you should get going,’ said the third man. ‘Look, there’s no harm done, we’ll check him out. I’m sorry we scared you.’

With that the kneeling man was helped to his feet and the three of them headed off toward the camp site. Emily was really sorry she had hurt him, but actually quite impressed with herself for that move with the elbow. She decided the best and safest thing to do was to just head back and meet Ted.